[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: grub update and reinstallation




On 8/1/20 05:23, Graham Seaman wrote:
> On 01/08/2020 07:50, Tom Dial wrote:
>> I have a laptop that became unbootable because
>> the initial loader failed to find a symbol (grub_calloc) and balked.
>> Like the one mentioned here, it uses legacy boot. One explanation has it
>> that this happened because the MBR and the remainder of grub were not
>> both updated or were updated with slightly incompatible data.
>>
>> One fix appears to be to reinstall grub using a rescue CD or another
>> system. That worked for me.
> 
> My home server sits in my loft managing comms with the outside world;
> yesterday it overheated (not a surprise) and went down. On reboot after
> cooling it came back up with the grub_calloc problem, so like Tom I
> reinstalled after which it appears to be OK.
> 
> BUT because I have no idea why the original problem occurred, or why a
> reinstall fixed the problem, I have no idea if this is a permanent fix,
> or if I have a system which is liable to fail to reboot again in the
> future. Does anyone know? It's a very simple single drive system with
> legacy boot. I run it with security updates on auto, and check for other
> updates manually once a week or so. Should I change this pattern for a
> while while possible grub problems are sorted upstream?

My slightly educated and informed, and partly imagined, guess is that
the original problem - inability to find the grub_calloc symbol -
resulted from a packaging or installation glitch that left the boot
block that referenced grub_calloc out of sync with the main part of grub
with the piece that had the symbol.

If that is so, and if reinstalling grub fixes the problem at all, the
fix should be final. The grub-install done in conjunction with upgrade
to 10.5 just worked OK, as did the previous installation of
grub 2.02+dfsg1-20+deb10u2. I do not know if the fact it was on a VM
might have changed the outcome.

Tom Dial

> 
> Graham


Reply to: